Ronan Maher's wall of fame: ‘I'm born and raised in Thurles and I'll be there for the rest of my life'
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The Irish Sun
an hour ago
- The Irish Sun
Basketball Ireland commit to facing Israel ‘at neutral venue' despite ‘extreme alarm at humanitarian situation in Gaza'
BASKET CASE Basketball Ireland commit to facing Israel 'at neutral venue' despite 'extreme alarm at humanitarian situation in Gaza' IRELAND will go ahead with their 2027 Women's EuroBasket qualifiers against Israel. Last month Basketball Ireland pledged to 'assess the next steps' after being drawn in Group A with Israel, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Luxembourg. The governing body said it was 'extremely alarmed by the ongoing humanitarian situation in Gaza'. However, after 'extensive deliberation' over its options — that included withdrawing from the qualifiers — the two games will go ahead in November and March. But Ireland will only play at a neutral venue. Basketball Ireland chief executive John Feehan said: 'Facing Israel in these circumstances is not a scenario we would wish, but there has been no change in Israel's status within sport, made by FIBA Europe, the IOC or any other major sporting body.' Ireland's women refused to shake hands with Israel and stood courtside for the national anthems in a 2025 EuroBasket qualifier back in February 2024.
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Cork camogie legacies are measured by the highest standards imaginable
Cork looking to cement their greatness Before last year's All-Ireland final, Linda Mellerick, one of Cork's greatest camogie players, and one of the best players to ever play the game, was asked to rate the Cork team. How good were they? How great could they become. Mellerick has always been fearless and utterly forthright in her commentary so she didn't hold back when comparing this team with some of the Cork All-Ireland winning sides that had gone before them. 'There are some brilliant players on this team that would make any side of the last 50 years,' said Mellerick. 'But there are plenty of other players that wouldn't. Would this team compare with some Cork sides of the past? It's hard to say yet.' The level of expectation has always been so high in Cork that legacies are measured by the highest standards imaginable. And nobody is more aware of those demands for excellence in the pursuit of securing acceptance and a place in the Cork pantheon than the players themselves. In Cork, there is only one way to cement your legacy as a team – win as many All-Irelands as possible. 'We are not happy with just having the one All-Ireland under our belt,' Hannah Looney told Eoghan Cormican in these pages before last year's All-Ireland final. 'We really want to drive on and be a generational team, but that's not easy either. When you are from Cork, it is kind of what you are expected to do.' Looney ran with that theme again after last year's win against Galway. 'What we want is to be a generational team,' said Looney. 'To win back-to-back is only the start of it. We'll keep going. It's something we've done in Cork before. What hasn't been done is the three-in-a-row.' Cork have achieved three-in-a-row three times in their history, having won four in-a-row between 1970-'73. In the intervening 52 years though, Cork have been here before on seven previous occasions, having won successive titles in 1982-'83, 1992-'93, 1997-'98, 2005-'06, 2008-'09, 2014-'15 and 2017-'18. But they couldn't manage that three-in-a-row. There were just two years – in 2007 and 2016 – where Cork put themselves in a position to win that three-in-a-row by reaching the final. But they were beaten in the 2007 decider by Wexford before going down to Kilkenny in the 2016 final. The potential is there for Cork now to dominate the game again like they did in the early 1970s, especially with the level of underage talent coming through. More is never enough for Cork camogie teams, but the players know that there is only one way to gain entry into that pantheon. And winning three-in-a-row now would go a long way towards securing this side's legacy. Another 'Down' battle within another senior final When Down won the All-Ireland Intermediate camogie title in 2020 for the first time in 22 years, they were driven to that maiden title by Niamh Mallon and Sorcha McCartan, who scored 2-5 between them. When Down won the Division 2 league title the following year, Mallon and McCartan combined for 2-7 in the final. The promise of Down's future was reflected through Mallon and McCartan but McCartan had left within a year, while Mallon has since followed her former team-mate south, west to be precise, in the last year. A work placement with Stryker sent McCartan to Cork 2021. She continued to travel home for a gruelling 800km round trip to play for Down but a move to the St Finbarr's club was followed by a switch of county allegiance for the Castlewellan native who is a daughter of Greg McCartan, an All-Ireland winner with Down from the early 1990s. For Mallon, the move west took a lot longer, even though the Portaferry native has been living and working in Galway since 2018. A sports scientist at Galway-based firm Orreco, where she conducts the company's Redox testing, Mallon eventually transferred to club powerhouse Sarsfields mid-way through the 2024 league, having found it untenable to continue the commute to play for Down and Portaferry. By the end of last season, Mallon had picked up an All-Star, becoming the first player from Ulster to win an award in 15 years. Mallon is just the fifth player from the province to secure that accolade. McCartan though, has what Mallon craves, with McCartan having won successive All-Irelands with Cork. On Sunday, Mallon and McCartan go head to head again, trying to maintain a remarkable sequence of winning All-Ireland medals as Down players in different coloured jerseys. Kerry looking to write a glorious new history In the dying seconds of last year's Kilkenny-Kerry All-Ireland Intermediate camogie semi-final in Thurles, Kerry's Ellen O'Donoghue was desperately scrambling to get off a shot in front of goal to try and raise the green flag Kerry needed to win the game. She was blocked and hustled out of possession by three Kilkenny defenders. As soon as the ball was cleared, the full-time whistle blew Kilkenny were elated to have come through a titanic battle after extra-time, winning by two points. Kerry were devastated after defying all the odds in their first All-Ireland Intermediate semi-final, but they had shown the wider camogie world what they were capable off. 'Kerry should hold their heads up massively high,' said Kilkenny manager Seamus Kelly in his post-match TV interview. 'They are a great side. They have great players. Kerry have done their county so proud today.' The performance reaffirmed what the squad were capable off, especially when Kilkenny went so close to winning the title, losing the final to Cork by just one point. Kerry were more ambitious again ahead of the 2025 campaign when a restructuring of the Intermediate championship made it no longer open to competing senior counties. Kerry have incrementally been getting more competitive but taking that critical next step has always been a struggle for counties with Kerry's history and profile. Relegated from Division 1B in the league last year, Kerry failed to gain promotion from Division 2A this season, none of which was helped by the upheaval in the middle of the spring with a change of management. After getting hammered by Offaly in their opening league game, manager Brian Darcy and coach Paul Lillis departed on the eve of their second round clash with Meath in Lixnaw. Two other coaches part of that management team, Aidan Boyle and Pete Young, stepped in and guided the side to wins against Meath, Armagh and Carlow before John Madden was appointed manager ahead of Kerry's last league game against Derry. Madden had managed Clanmaurice to successive All-Ireland Intermediate club championship wins in 2024 and 2025, having built up huge experience alongside Eddie Murphy. Progress has been solid ever since with Kerry defeating Down in the semi-final four weeks ago to advance to a first final now against Offaly. The Leinster side are hot favourites but Kerry have been on a mission since last July to atone for the heartbreak of that semi-final defeat to Kilkenny. And to rewrite a glorious new history for Kerry camogie. O'Mullan seeking more All-Ireland glory Not long after PJ O'Mullan stepped down as Derry senior camogie manager last autumn, he got a call from Armagh. They had seen what O'Mullan was capable off, especially after he'd led Derry to All-Ireland Intermediate glory in 2023. Derry had retained their senior status last year with wins against Antrim and Limerick. So Armagh didn't hang around in trying to snap up O'Mullan ahead of the 2025 season. It's been rare for a manager to take two different counties to All-Ireland finals within the space of two years but O'Mullan has managed it again now with Armagh, who face Laois in Sunday's Junior final. O'Mullan has certainly put his own stamp on the side, having regenerated it with youth. The team which beat Roscommon in the semi-final two weeks ago had four minors on the pitch. 'The younger players have no fear,' said O'Mullan after that win against Roscommon. 'They have no baggage.' O'Mullan has also brought a winning pedigree to Armagh as a manager, having led Loughgiel Shamrocks to the 2012 All-Ireland club hurling title. During his six years in charge, O'Mullan also guided the Shamrocks to four Antrim and four Ulster titles. Having previously led his club, and the Derry camogie side, to All-Ireland wins in Croke Park (although Derry won that Intermediate final in Clones after a replay), O'Mullan certainly knows what it takes to get the job done at Headquarters.
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
'We never in our wildest dreams saw this coming' - Kerry camogie joint captains intertwined in unlikely success story
The replies of Patrice Diggin and Jackie Horgan are strikingly similar. The replies are almost word for word identical. Once Patrice and I have finished our conversation in the meeting room of the Lixnaw clubhouse, she volunteers to go and fetch the other Kerry camogie stalwart available for Friday evening interrogation. A couple of minutes into our chat with Jackie, we ask if Patrice slipped her an answer sheet when out on the field fetching her. Was there maybe a preparatory Zoom call between the pair to ensure they were on the exact same page? It is hardly a coincidence that they are both churning out the same answers when reflecting on the long road to Sunday. No matter what part of the winding backroad we stop at and tease out, their reflections are two mirrors held against one another. 'Sure we have lived the same life for 10 years,' Jackie smiles. Read More Jackie Horgan has seen it all during Kerry's camogie journey Kerry camogie is Patrice Diggin. Kerry camogie is Jackie Horgan. The 2025 joint-captains have been around the green and gold scene since almost day dot. Their identities are intertwined in an unlikely success story that the rest of us are all of a sudden interested in. They were teenage kids lining out at midfield and full-forward respectively when Carlow whacked them in the 2015 second-tier All-Ireland junior final. They play their club camogie together, they play their club football together. They socialise together. They are the strongest of friends. 'As Patrice would say, sure what else would you be at in the evening only going training,' says Jackie, another smile shooting into view. We all know what they are at presently. We know they are heading up the road for a first All-Ireland intermediate final appearance. We know they are one hour from a historic step-up to the senior grade. We know they are backboned by back-to-back All-Ireland intermediate club champions Clanmaurice. We know they are well looked after because Patrice and Jackie arrive in for a chat dressed head-to-toe in Kerry training gear carrying their initials while an ice cream van parked outside the door is throwing out 99s to whoever wants one. But what did Kerry camogie look like before anyone took notice of them, before there was need for open nights and the hired services of the Shannon Ices van? What did Kerry camogie look like from the bottom of the barrel? 'You were only probably comparing yourself to a Kerry footballer and sure they were getting the best of the best at the time, and we were only nearly laughing. If you got a jumper, it was a great day' begins Diggin, the 29-year-old part of the Kerry set-up for the past 12 years. 'You were lucky if you got a pair of socks at the start of the year, and that was it,' Horgan adds. 'We went to training to go training, basically. We played because we loved it and because we were the best of friends.' Kerry manager John Madden was Causeway club secretary in 2008. He remembers the pivotal roles played by Patrice and Kerry full-back Sara Murphy in helping the boys win the county U14 Féile. 'But when they started camogie, they'd be playing in side fields and getting changed in dressing-rooms where you'd hardly fit three in the room. They have gone through the hardship. They have seen it all,' he explains. 'They've gone from being lucky to get a gearbag to going all the way to getting the full set. They fought hard for that. They saw the bad times and wanted to make it better.' Kerry's Jackie Horgan celebrates. Pic: ©INPHO/Leah Scholes. Horgan didn't play club camogie until she was 15. Two years later, she was at midfield in the aforementioned 2015 junior final. The thumping at Templetuohy continues to reside upstairs. 'I will never forget it. We got absolutely destroyed. I remember running around the pitch thinking, 'what am I doing here'. 'When I was minor, we used to go up the country with 15 players, maybe 16. You might be ringing someone at 8am of a Sunday morning saying, the bus is leaving, we'll meet you on the way with the gearbag.' They never complained or cursed their sorry environment simply because they knew no different. There was no adult club team for them when reaching the end of the underage ranks and so they all came from different corners to form Clanmaurice. If you were a club player in Kerry, you were an inter-county one too. Everyone got on the bus. Quality was secondary, the ability to field the priority. They couldn't afford to leave anyone behind, irrespective of how you gripped a hurley. Other counties would baulk at a panel of 17 or 18 players. This was Kerry's lived reality for years. It built them rather than broke them. Nine of the 2015 class are still showing up. 'There was a core group that just never gave up. We never knew any different than having the bare minimum. There'd be counties laughing at us, but we are probably closer than any of those teams. I know other teams will say they have a bond, but we have a bond,' says Diggin, her tone the Collins Dictionary definition of forceful. 'Kerry camogie is like one big family. No matter what I am doing, if I am going anywhere, it is, 'are ye coming'.' The friends forged a path for themselves. The friends paved a way for those coming after. They popularised Kerry camogie. Premier Junior finalists in 2018. Champions a year later. Intermediate semi-finalists 12 months ago. Three League titles. Club domination. They became annual visitors to Croke Park. They packed silverware onto a team bus now at capacity. The recent semi-final programme contained 30 names spread across four clubs. From one single adult club across an entire county, now senior status wearing Clanmaurice are joined at junior level by Cillard, Causeway, Killarney, and Tralee Parnells. Indeed, such are the growing numbers in these clubs that the county board was able to run, concurrent to the inter-county season, a nine-a-side league for the four junior teams and all their adult players not inside in the Kerry dressing-room. At underage, the numbers are stronger again. Abbeykillix (Abbeydorney, Kilflynn, and Lixnaw), Ballyduff, Causeway, Cillard (Kilmoyley and Ardfert), Killarney, Sliabh Luachra (Castleisland and surrounding areas) and Tralee Parnells have been joined this year by an eighth entity. Ceann Mara, serving Kenmare and its hinterland, stands as the perfect example of the Kerry camogie board capitalising on the increased interest in their brand. Aware of local appetite to grow the game, the county board paid Kerry panelist Kate Lynch to go down and coach in the Kenmare schools for six weeks. From that, Ceann Mara was born. 'You are always trying something new,' says Kerry chairperson Ann-Marie Russell. 'Last year we had an U13 school of excellence for those that didn't make the U14 county team. Six to 10 weeks of county-level training to keep the interest going and keep driving the standard.' John Madden, who assumed the Kingdom reins midway through this year's League, has a 14-year-old daughter. Team coach Aidan Boyle has two. They line out for Causeway and Ballyduff respectively. The fathers are driven to show their daughters, their daughters' friends, and every young girl in the county that Kerry camogie is about All-Ireland final Sundays in Croker and not the half promise of a free pair of shorts it once was. 'That is another motivating force for us in wanting to bring it to the next step, that the young girls can see that is the ambition you can hold if you are part of Kerry camogie.' John Barry is another member of management. His department is strength and conditioning. John was a member of the Kerry football backroom team during the return-to-the-summit 2022 campaign. That is the company and the quality the Kerry women now demand and expect. Last words to Diggin and Horgan. Let's make sure they are not identical. Patrice is the intermediate championship's leading contributor with 1-32 from four games. When she won three Ashbourne Cups with UL in the middle of the last decade, including player of the match in the '16 final, one guessed that would be the end of her exposure to top shelf camogie. She did herself. 'We never in our wildest dreams saw this coming. It comes down to the group of girls we have. Because we have had to fight for everything we have, nothing fazes us when things go wrong. We can just turn a blind eye and say to ourselves, sure we are used to things going wrong.' The mic is handed to Jackie. 'A win on Sunday would be bigger for the people behind us more so than ourselves because it will keep the whole thing going.' And one final pass to Patrice. 'Kerry camogie is safe for a long time.'
